This invention relates to automobile signal systems and more particularly to a "hands free" signal system for requesting drivers of vehicles moving in the same or opposite directions to dim their vehicles' bright headlights.
Passenger and commercial motor vehicles have headlights which transmit low intensity and high intensity beams. The low intensity beams are intended to be used for normal driving conditions and the high intensity beams are intended to be used only for short periods in special situations, by way of example, when driving through a sharp bend in a road at a high speed.
Drivers frequently forget to turn off their vehicles' high intensity headlight beams. This causes other drivers discomfort and irritation, particularly while driving on highways at high speeds. The high intensity headlight beams of a vehicle travelling behind another vehicle reflect off the inside rear view mirror and the exterior rear view mirrors of the forward vehicle and into a driver's eyes. A high intensity headlight beam of an oncoming vehicle may shine directly into a driver's eyes, creating a life threatening situation.
Although inside day/night rear view mirrors reduce the glare of bright headlights from behind a vehicle, they also have the undesirable effect of substantially reducing rear view vision. There are no provisions in a vehicle's exterior mounted mirrors for reducing glare from the headlights of vehicles which approach from the rear or for reducing glare from the bright headlights of oncoming vehicles.
"Hands free" vehicle systems are desirable, particularly at night, when controls are difficult to locate because vision is impaired.